Photo Essay

Adventure Time – #ØYA15

Text and photos by Sonia de Jager and Keimpe Koldijk in Oslo, Norway

We were invited by our friends at Øya to get a taste of the esteemed Norwegian summer and its weekend of festivities, and so we sent intrepid reporters extraordinaire Sonia de Jager and Keimpe Koldijk to document their ride.

“All art constantly aspires towards the condition of music”

– Walter Pater, ‘The School of Giorgione’ (Fortnightly Review, 1877)

“The ground of this repugnant phenomenon, however, lies deep within the very nature of our modern music”

– Richard Wagner, ‘The Artwork of the Future’ (Leipzig, 1849)

oya, the greenest festival

So we went to Øya, in Oslo. Getting invited to partake in such festive festivities is always a good thing, all the more so when it involves musical variety ranging from Chic to Enslaved across a myriad of stages and locations; zip-lining across a ski-jump platform; barbecuing and table-tennising at a private island in the fjord – and all this within the best window of weather the peninsular Viking-land has to offer.

It was 5:00 AM in the morning, and with sweat dripping down our cracks, we speedily cycled our way to the station. On the train to the airport we practiced German and Spanish on our respective phone apps, useful but inadequate, you might say. We got on the plane and were soon enough landing: welcome to the land of black metal and salmon.

This being the first time we visited the Øya festival – and more generally: the Kingdom of Norway – we got distracted by several curiosities which we compiled together into something incoherent but consequent(ial). From Sunn O)) to Tyler, the creator; from Bad Religion to Beck; from toilet to toilet; from dusk to dawn. What follows here is a fotonovela involving a banana, a queen of hearts and the efforts of a pretty good Chinese camera phone.

Toilets were plenty (and clean), and here thus began the bananarama.

We plucked this beauty from some nearby bushes.

We were really pampered* by the Øya crew, tips fedora to you all, you know who you are. *cash not included.

Despite all the controversies, here’s a Norsman displaying some love for Liturgy. Also, we discovered this local act called Antler, we saw them perform and we were not disappointed. What is more, we were happy.

The Tyler, the Creator Fan Award of the year goes to these two guys:

And this girl:

“He just puked off stage”!

We were taken to this 150 meter ski-jump, and one of us took the risky dive down the zip line. Local musician Thea Hjelmeland got pulled up the line and performed for us atop this great Norwegian attraction. Hello Thea!

Good bye, Thea!

In the woods surrounding the ski-jump darkness began taking hold of us.

Back at the festival grounds we spotted Adam Granduciel from The War on Drugs singing through our banana.

Even naar de backstage voor een beetje gezelligheid met de meiden.

The audience watched as Enslaved did what they do best. Extreme metal. Y’don’t think it do what it do but it do.

Red Queen, ever present.

This banana was browned during the Sunn O)) performance, as they played their infamous brown note.

Chic was by far the best thing we saw. Getting lucky with notorious Nile Rodgers coming out with his family to freak out and show us what is right, we felt just like a virgin. Thank you, for the good times. He also wrote Let’s Dance by David Bowie Nile Rodgers.

This guy was the coolest guy at the festival (OK, also his friend, behind banana).

Subbacultcha! at Tiger Records, Oslo.

This (left) was how we were welcomed by the magnificent Øya team, and now that we only had a banana (up) and had to make our way back home, we looked back at this image with a deep longing and melancholia. All things must pass (down).

Back to the land of cranes and mills. Superbedankt, Øya! You ticked all our boxes. May we return to your green fields and actually-not-that-cold fjords next year.